I think a lot about the connections between the environment, social justice and art. Today they all came together when I found Chris Jordan’s latest collection of photographs “Running the Numbers: An American Portrait“.

Jordon skewers our out-of-control consumer culture by turning photos into oversized pointillist collages. The image above is a detail of his version of Seurat’s A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte done in aluminum soda/drink cans. It is art doing double duty as an environmental call to action.
______________________________
It’s all connected. I spent this morning at a friend’s architectural office watching the global webcast of the 2010 Initiative, and 2030 Challenge. Architects, engineers and developers all over the world gathered in their offices for this simultaneous “teach-in” planned by Ed Mazria.

“We took a look at the building sector and discovered that it was responsible for about half of all global greenhouse gas emissions annually. So, when you start looking at solutions to global warming and greenhouse gas emissions, you have to look at the building sector, because that’s the sector that is increasing most rapidly. Ed Mazria

I’ve been using Mazria’s book on passive solar design for twenty years. As one of the gurus of alternative construction, he is now challenging building professionals to design new buildings to be carbon neutral by 2030. The phrase the webcast speakers kept using was, “We need to do this to save the planet as we know it.”

Mazria started his talk with a quote about an imaginary catastrophic flood in New Orleans where thousand died when the levy failed. The quote came from an article published in National Geographic a year before Katrina hit.
________________________________
It’s all connected. Chris Jordan’s photos from “In Katrina’s Wake: Portraits of Loss from an Unnatural Disaster” are heart wrenching and remind us that behind today’s Mardi Gras celebrations the city is still suffering.

Jordan uses images of overconsumption and disaster to make his point – something’s not right in our world. Mazria made the same point in his webcast.

At the end of the day, I was feeling challenged by both Jordon and Mazria to do something more “activist.” But then I realized that I am doing something. I am blogging.

Please share Jordon’s images with your friends and the 2030 Challenge with anyone you know in the building industry. Its a long shot. But we have to start somewhere. Thanks.